The North Dakota Supreme Court let stand a ruling that the Kenmare school district could offer and pay more money to fill a speech-language pathologist position. The district’s action was the subject of a lawsuit by the Kenmare Education Association (KEA).
The union filed suit in July 2005, after a state fact-finding committee recommended the district be allowed to offer an additional $15,000 in salary to find a taker for the hard-to-fill position. The union asserted that paying a pathologist more money than was proscribed by the salary scale violated the collective bargaining agreement.
Last November, a state district court judge upheld the district’s action, prompting KEA President Donna Schmit to say, “For one individual to be allowed to negotiate up to $15,000 additional salary is wrong.”